English majors and minors, year II, autumn 2009-2010

Lecture 2
Function word classes
Function words can also be categorized in different classes: determiners,
pronouns, auxiliary er!s, prepositions, ader!ial particles, coordinators, and
su!ordinators" To distinguish these classes briefly, we will look at their semantic
function and syntactic role, list their main forms, and consider their subclasses.
1 #eterminers
Determiners normally precede nouns, and are used to help clarify the meaning of
the noun. The most important are the following:
$he de%inite article the indicates that the re%erent (i.e. whatever is referred to
is assumed to be known by the speaker and the person being spoken to (or
addressee.
$he inde%inite article a or an makes it clear that the referent is one member of
a class (a book.
#emonstratie determiners indicate that the referents are !near to! or "away
from! the speaker!s immediate conte#t (this book, that book, etc..
&ossessie determiners tell us who or what the noun belongs to (my
book, your book, her book, etc..
'uanti%iers specify how many or how much of the noun there is (every book,
some books, etc..
There are also determiner$like uses of wh-words and numerals.
2 &ronouns
%ronouns fill the position of a noun or a whole noun phrase. The reference of
a pronoun is usually made clear by its conte#t. There are eight ma&or classes of
pronoun:
( &ersonal pronouns refer to the speaker, the addressee(s, and other
entities:
I won't tell you how it ended.
%ersonal pronouns are used far more fre'uently than the other classes of
pronouns.
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( #emonstratie pronouns refer to entities which are !near to! versus !away
from( the speaker!s conte#t, like demonstrative determiners:
This is Bay City.
/ like those.
( )e%lexie pronouns refer back to a previous noun phrase, usually the
sub&ect of the clause:
I taught myself.
She never introduced herself?
( )eciprocal pronouns, like refle#ive pronouns, refer to a previous
noun phrase, but indicate that there is a mutual relationship:
They know each other pretty well.
( &ossessie pronouns (such as mine, yours, his are closely related to
possessive determiners (my, your, his, etc., and usually imply a missing noun head:
Is this yours, or mine?
Ours is better than theirs.
These possessive pronouns include the meaning of a head noun. For e#ample,
yours might refer to your car or your pen.
( Inde%inite pronouns have a broad, indefinite meaning. )ome of them are
compound words consisting of 'uantifier * general noun (everything, nobody,
someone, etc.. +thers consist of a 'uantifier alone (all, some, many, etc.:
Somebody tricked me.
That's all I know.
( )elatie pronouns (who, whom, which, that introduce a relatie clause:
I had more riends that were boys.
!e's the guy who told me about this.
, Interrogatie pronouns ask 'uestions about unknown entities:
What did he say"
I #ust wonder who it was.
-ost relative and interrogative pronouns (e.g. who, which, what belong to the
class of wh-words.
* +uxiliary er!s
There are two kinds of au#iliary verbs: primary auxiliaries and modal
auxiliaries. .oth are !au#iliary verbs! in the sense that they are added to a main
verb to help build verb phrases.
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/u#iliary verbs precede the main or le#ical verb in a verb phrase: will arrive$ has
arrived$ is arriving$ may be arriving, etc. )ome common au#iliaries have contracted
forms 0 %s, %re, %ve, %d, %ll 0 used particularly in speech.
+ &rimary auxiliaries
There are three primary au#iliaries: be, have, and do. They have inflections like
le#ical verbs, but are normally unstressed. The same verbs be, have, and do can also act
as main verbs.
!ase present tense past tense ing-participle ed-participle
be is, am, are was, were being been
have has, have had having had
do does, do did doing done
1n various ways, the primary au#iliaries show how the main verb is to be
understood:
The au#iliary have is used to form the per%ect aspect, I've done that once.
The au#iliary be is used for the progressie aspect or !continuous! aspect:
She was thinking about me.
The au#iliary be is also used for the passie oice, It was sent over there
.
The au#iliary do is used in negative statements and in 'uestions2 this is
know as do insertion: Did he sell it" This doesnt make sense.
- .odal auxiliaries
There are nine modal au#iliary verbs. /s their name suggests, they are largely
concerned with e#pressing !modality!, such as possibility, necessity, prediction and
volition. The modals are:
will can shall may must
would could should might
3ach modal in the lower row is historically the past tense of the modal directly
above it. For e#ample, would was historically the past tense of will. (&ust has no
matching historical past tense. 4owadays, though, the relationship of will to would,
or can to could, etc. has less to do with tense than with modal meaning.
1n practice the modals can be regarded as invariable function words, within
inflections such as $ing and 'ed. The modals will and would have contracted forms (!55
and 'd, and most modals have a contracted negative form ending in n't, such as
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wouldn't. -odals occur as the first verb in a clause, and are followed by the base form of
another verb, usually the main verb (underlined below:
I can live here (uietly.
They would have a dierent view.
/ &repositions
%repositions are linking words that introduce prepositional phrases. The
prepositional complement following a preposition is generally a noun phrase, so
prepositions can also be seen as linking words that connect other structures with
noun phrases. For e#ample:
)leven ity with the tip.
*nd she's in a new situation.
that picture of mother
She's still on the phone.
-ost prepositions are short, invariable forms: e.g. about, ater, around, as, at, in,
down, or, rom, into, like, o, o, on, round, since, than, to, towards, with, without.
1n the following e#amples, the preposition is in bold, and the prepositional phrase
it introduces is enclosed in + ,. The noun phrase functioning as prepositional
complement is underlined:
!e'll go +with one o the kids,.
-ate one morning +in .une,, +in the thirty'irst year o his lie,, a message was
brought +to &ichael, as he raked leaves +in the garden,.
%repositions can be linked to a preceding verb, such as rely on and conide in.
/ou can't, you can't rely on any o that inormation.
She confided in him above all others.
These multi$word units are referred to as prepositional er!s.
0omplex prepositions
/nother set of prepositions consists of multi$word units known as complex
prepositions, which have a meaning that cannot be derived from the meaning of the
parts. Two$word comple# prepositions normally end with a simple preposition:
ending in examples
as such as
or as or, e0cept or
rom apart rom
o because o, instead o, out o, regardless o
to according to, due to, owing to
Three$word prepositions usually have the structure simple preposition * noun *
simple preposition:
ending in examples
o by means o, in spite o, on account o, on top o
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to in addition to, with regard to
as as ar as, as well as
/s with many grammatical categories, there are borderline cases with comple#
prepositions. 1t is not always clear whether a multi$word combination is a comple#
preposition $ that is, a fi#ed e#pression with a special meaning $ or a free combination of
preposition (* article * noun * preposition. *t the e0pense o is an e#ample of an in$
between case.
1 +der!ial particles
/dverbial particles are a small group of words with a core meaning of motion. The
most important are: about, across, along, around, aside1, away1, back1, by, down, orth1,
home1, in, o, on, out, over, past, round, through, under, up. /ll of these forms e#cept those
marked 6 can also be prepositions.
/dverbial particles are closely linked to verbs. They generally follow verbs, and are
closely bound to them in meaning: go away, come hack, put (something on, etc. They are
used to build phrasal er!s, such as the following2.
!ome on, tell me about 2ick.
I #ust bro"e down in tears when I saw the letter.
&argotte rarely turned on the television set.
They are also used to build extended prepositional phrases, where a particle
precedes the preposition. For e#ample:
3e were going bac" to the hotel when it happened.
/dverbial particles have been called !prepositional adverbs!, because of their
resemblance to both prepositions (in form and adverbs (in syntactic role.
2 0oordinators
There are two types of words traditionally called conjunctions in 3nglish:
coordinators (also called coordinating con&unctions, and su!ordinators (or
subordinating con&unctions.
7oordinators are used to indicate a relationship between two units such as
phrases or clauses. 7oordinators link elements which have the same syntactic role,
and are at the same level of the syntactic hierarchy. Thus, in any structure 89 *
coordinator * :;, 9 and : are e'uivalent. The main coordinators are and, but, and
or. 1n the following e#amples, the coordinated elements are marked by 8 ;:
+&other, and +I, saw it.
+I don't want to speak too soon,, but +I think I have been airly consistent this
season,.
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Is this necessarily +good, or +bad,"
4r has a rather infre'uently used negative counterpart, nor, which is used after
negative clauses:
+The donkeys did not come back,, nor +did the eleven men,, nor +did the
helicopter,.
/s this e#ample shows, coordinators can be used to connect more than two
elements.
0orrelatie coordinators
3ach simple coordinator can be combined with another word, to make a
correlatie coordinator,
both +5, and +/, either +5, or +/,
not 6only7 +5, but 6also7 +/, neither +5, nor +/,
For e#ample:
The couple were both +shoved, and +#ostled,.
It's yes or no, isn't it" #ither +you agree with it, or +you don't agree with it,.
3e used not only +the colors relected rom mineral suraces, but also +the colors
transmitted through minerals in microscopic thin sections,.
$either +8ack, nor +.ane, had slept that night, but they looked happy anyway.
3 4u!ordinators
)ubordinators (also called subordinating con&unctions are linking words that
introduce clauses known as dependent clauses $ clauses which cannot stand alone
without another clause, called the main clause,
/ou can hold her +if you want,.
The subordinator shows the connection of meaning between the main clause and
the subordinate clause. 1n the above e#ample, the subordinator i shows a relation
of condition.
1n the case of coordination, the two elements have the same status. <owever,
in the case of subordination, the dependent clause starting with the subordinator is
embedded (or included in the main clause. This can be shown by nested brackets 88 ;;:
++%s they watched,, a lash o ire appeared.,
+* lash o ire appeared +as they watched.,,
4otice the dependent clause can come at the front or at the end of the main
clause.
)ubordinators fall into three ma&or subclasses:
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The great ma&ority of subordinators introduce ader!ial clauses, adding details of
time, place, reason, etc. to the main clause: ater, as, because, i, since, although, while,
etc.
Three subordinators introduce degree clauses, as, than, that.
Three subordinators introduce complement clauses (or nominal clauses5: i, that,
whether.
The subordinators in the first two subclasses indicate meaning relationships such
as time, reason, condition, and comparison. The subordinators in the third
subclass are called complementi6ers because they introduce clauses following verbs,
ad&ectives or nouns, complementing or completing the meaning of these key words in
the main clause:
I'm glad +that I've ound you again,.
Sometimes he did not know +whether he was awake or asleep,.
Dependent clauses can also be introduced by other forms, like wh$words and the
relative pronoun that. These are not subordinators.
!om&le' subordinators
=ike prepositions, subordinators may consist of more than one word. -ost of
these complex su!ordinators end with as or that (often the that is optional, as shown by
parentheses ( below:
ending in examples
as as long as, as soon as
that given 6that7, on condition 6that7, provided 6that7, e0cept
6that7, in that, in order that, so 6that7, such 6that7
others as i, as though, even i, even though
4pecial classes o% words
/ few classes of function words have special 'ualities: wh$words, existential
there, the negator not, the in%initie mar7er to, and numerals"
1" Wh-words
3h$words, like subordinators, introduce clauses. <owever, wh$words form
an independent word class. 1nstead, they are members of other word classes,
especially determiners, pronouns, and adverbs. /s their name suggests, wh$words
begin with wh', with the single e#ception of how. They are used in two main ways:
at the beginning of an interrogatie clause, and beginning of a relatie clause"
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Two further uses are at the beginning of a complement clause and at the
beginning of an adverbial clause.
+ Introducing an interrogatie clause
What do they want"
When are you leaving"
Which one do you mean"
Why should I care"
1nterrogative wh$words can be:
interrogative pronouns: who, whom, what, which
interrogative determiners: what, which, whose
interrogative adverbs: when, where, how, why
- Introducing a relatie clause 8relatii6ers5
1 the kind o person +who needs emotional space,
2 9raham :oole, +whose grandather started the place in ;<=>,
3 a small place +where everyone knows everyone else,
>elativizers can be:
relative pronouns: who, whom, which, that
relative determiners: which, whose
relative adverbs: where, when, why
>elative pronouns stand for a noun phrase, as in ? above, where who refers
back to the kind of person. >elative determiners occur before the noun, as in @
above (whose grandather or in the phrase by which time. >elative adverbs are
used to refer to times (when, reasons (why, or places (where, as in A above (where
refers back to a small place.
0 Introducing a complement clause 8complementi6ers5
I don't know +what I would have done without her,.
I give them +whatever I have in my pocket,.
.ane wonders +where she stands in her ather's aections,.
# +der!ial clause lin7s
1 They could not improve upon that, +whatever they might say,.
2 +(owever they vary,, each ormation comprises a distinctive set o rock
layers.
1n adverbial clauses as in ? and @, wh$words combined with $ever e#press the
meaning !it doesn!t matter what5when5where5...!.
Finally, the word whether is versatile: it is used as a subordinator but it can
also be classed as a wh$word.
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2 4ingle-word classes
The three words considered in this group are special in that they are each
uni'ue, grammatically, and do not fit into any other class. That is, they form single$
word classes.
+ Existential there
3#istential there is often called an anticipatory sub&ect. 4o other word in
3nglish behaves in the same way, heading a clause e#pressing e#istence:
Theres a mark on this chair.
There were our bowls o soup.
There are no trains on Sundays.
3#istential there should not be confused with the place adverb there.
- $he negator not
The negator not is in some ways like an adverb, but in other respects it is uni'ue.
The main use of not (and its reduced form n't is to make a clause negative.
/ou can do this but +you can)t do that,. 8 ; marks the clause
/part from negating whole clauses not has various other negative uses (as in
not all, not many, not very, etc..
0 $he in%initie mar7er to
The infinitive marker to is another uni'ue word (not to be confused with the common
preposition to. 1ts chief use is as a complementizer preceding the infinitive (base form of
verbs.
3hat do you want to drink"
I'm #ust happy to be here right now.
1n addition, infinitive to occurs as part of two comple# subordinators e#pressing
purpose: in order to and so as to:
/ou don't have to live under the same laws as a oreigner in order to trade
with him.
)ach has the #ob o writing his chapter so as to make the novel being
constructed the best it can be.
* 9umerals
4umerals form a rather self$contained area of 3nglish grammar. /s a word class,
numerals consist of a small set of simple forms (one, two, ive, etc., and a large set of
more comple# forms which can be built up from the simple forms (e.g. three million eight
hundred and ity'ive thousand our hundred and eighteen ' A,BCC,D?B.
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They are most commonly used in the role of determiners or heads in noun phrases.
There are two parallel sets of numerals, cardinals and ordinals"
+ 0ardinals
7ardinal numerals answer the 'uestion !<ow manyE! and are most commonly used
like determiners, with a following noun:
*our people were arrested.
<owever, cardinals also occur as heads of noun phrases:
*our o the yen traders have pleaded guilty.
1n their nounlike use, cardinals can be made plural by adding $6e7s:
Cops in twos and threes huddle and smile at me with benevolence.
?amage is estimated at hundreds of millions o pounds.
- :rdinals
+rdinal numerals answer the 'uestion !FhichE! and serve to place entities in
order or in a series: irst, second, third, etc. )imilar to cardinals, they can be used either
like determiners, before a noun:
I was doing my third week as a young crime reporter and had #ust about
inished my second and last story o the day when the phone rang.
or like nouns, as head of a noun phrase:
Three men will appear beore Belast magistrates today on charges o
intimidation. * fourth will be charged with having inormation likely to be o
use to terrorists. The ith, a woman, was remanded on the same charge
yesterday.
+rdinals are also used to form fractions. Treated as regular nouns, ordinals such
as ith, tenth, and hundredth can take a plural 's ending:
:robably two thirds o the people who live here now are not natives.
The pupil can identiy the place value o a column or a digit or values o
tenths, hundredths and thousandths.
;ord-class am!iguities
1t is important to notice that 3nglish has a large number of word forms which
occur in more than one word class. 1n other words, the same spelling and
pronunciation applies to two or more different grammatical words.
)ome word$class ambiguities are systematic. For e#ample, the class of
'uantifiers (e.g. all, some, any, much can be seen as a !superclass! of words which can
function with similar meanings as determiners, pronouns or adverbs:
, as determiners:
!e kept whistling at all the girls.
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I have a little money in my room. G4ote: a little is considered as a single
determinerH
, as pronouns:
Is that all I've got dad"
'3ater"' '' '.ust a little, and a lot o ice'.
, as adverbs:
?on't get all mucky.
It was a little hard or him to understand.
/s these e#amples show, it is impossible to identify the word class of many
3nglish words without seeing them in conte#t.
;ords in more than one class
%orm noun er! adj ad prep su! examples
before x She had never asked him that before.
x
!e was there before her.
x They@d started leaving before I arrived.
early x
Steele kicked an early penalty goal.
x !e has also kicked a penalty goal early
in the match.
fight x There was a hell o a fight.
x
They're too big to fight.
narrow x !e plans to narrow his ocus to certain
markets.
x Current review programs are too narrow.
as x
This was the beginning o his lie as a
cultivator.
x
%s they watched, a lash o ire
appeared.
outside #
/ou can open the outside window.
# !e's gone outside.
#
It's sitting outside your house.
Introduction to phrases
&hrases and their characteristics
Fords can be organized into higher units, known as phrases"
The following e#ample consists of three ma&or phrases, as shown by
bracketing 8 ; each phrase:
?. +The opposition, +demands, +a more representative government,.
/ phrase may consist of a single word or a group of words. %hrases can be
identified by substitution $ that is, by replacing one e#pression with another, to see how
it fits into the structure. 1n particular, a multi$word phrase can often be replaced by a
single$word phrase without changing the basic meaning:
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+It, +demands, +something,.
The opposition a more representative government.
Fe can also identify phrases by movement tests. / phrase can be moved as a unit
to a different position. 7ompare ? above with ?a, which has a similar meaning:
?a. +* more representative government, +is demanded, +by +the opposition,,.
Fhen we place one set of brackets inside another, as at the end of ?a, this
means that one phrase is em!edded (i.e. included inside another. The
possibility of embedding sometimes means that a given structure can be understood
in two or more different ways. 7onsider the following e#ample:
@. They passed the table with the two men.
4otice there are two possible meanings of this clause, corresponding to different
ways of grouping the words (i.e. different phrase structures:
@a +They, +passed, +the table +with +the two men,,,.
@b +They, +passed, +the table, +with +the two men,,.
The meaning of @a is roughly: IThey passed the table where the two men were
sitting
A
. .ut in @b the meaning is '3ith 6i.e. accompanied by7 the two men, they passed
the table!.
1n summary:
Fords make up phrases, which behave like units.
/ phrase can consist of either one word or more than one word.
%hrases can be identified by substitution and movement tests.
Differences in phrase structure show up in differences of meaning.
%hrases can be embedded (i.e. one phrase can be part of the structure if another
phrase.
%hrase structure can be shown either by bracketing or by tree diagrams.
&hrase structures o% 2a
7lause
4oun phrase verb phrase noun phrase
%rep phrase
4oun phrase
They passed the table with the two men
&hrase structure o% 2!
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7lause
4oun phrase verb phrase noun phrase prep phrase
4oun phrase
They passed the table with the two men
4yntactic role o% phrases
%hrase types differ in their internal structure and in their syntactic roles 0 i.e. their
relations to larger structures. >ecognizing syntactic roles, like su!ject and o!ject, can
be crucial for the interpretation of phrases. For e#ample, consider the difference
between:
4u!ject er! o!ject
;. +&ommy, +loves, +the kitty,.
B. +The kitty, +loves, +&ommy,
<ere the noun phrases at the beginning and end are interchanged, resulting in a
clearly different meaning. Thus the first phrase in both ? and @ is the sub&ect, and the
second phrase is the ob&ect. .y interchanging the positions of &ommy and the kitty we
have also changed their syntactic roles.
$ypes o% phrases
noun phrase
verb phrase
ad&ective phrase
adverb phrase, and
prepositional phrase
The head is the principal, obligatory word. 1n fact, each phrase type can often
consist of &ust one word: the head.
+nce more, we need to take account of form5structure, syntactic role, and
meaning. These three factors need to be recognized in describing phrase types:
Form5structure: +ur main test for the classification of phrases is structure,
especially the word class of the head of the phrase and the other elements
contained in the phrase. (This is analogous to the morphological structure of
words.
)yntactic role: %hrases can be described according to their function or
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syntactic role in clauses (e.g. sub&ect, ob&ect.
-eaning: 1n general, the semantic nature of phrases is to specify and5or
elaborate the meaning of the head word and its relation to other elements in
the clause.
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